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VoIP and its future in India

Having been around for over half a decade, VoIP is no longer the new kid on the techie block. It's had more than its share of exaltation and is currently considered humdrum in the developed world more IT-savvy communities. So why are we in India making such a fuss about this technology?

The subject has been discussed almost to the death. Especially about its viability and usage in India. But the question is no longer confined to issues of how good or legal this technology is. The computer users community wants to know when can we start using VoIP without fear of service termination?

Sadly enough, the answer remains not yet! But why when both individuals and corporates stand to gain? That's because various vested interests in the government are stifling this technology because they fear a loss of control and a fall in the long-distance calling charge revenues. In short, the Indian government is ensuring that the interests, and monopolies, of the state-owned telecom service providers. BSNL and VSNL are protected. Did you know in India long-distance telephony charges are among the highest in the world.

VoIP (voice over IP) is voice delivered using the Internet Protocol. And is a term used for a set of facilities that manage the delivery of voice information over the Internet. This information is transmitted in digital form in discrete packets rather than in traditional circuit-committed protocols used by the public switched telephone network (PSTN). In addition, VoIP uses real-time protocol (RTP) to ensure that packets are delivered in a timely way, thereby ensuring Quality of Service.

With VOIP, instead of paying the telephone department Rs 200 for a five-minute international call, you pay Rs 40 for an hour-long call to the USA. All you need is a multimedia-enabled computer, a connection to the Internet and VoIP-enabled software like NetMeeting, MediaRing Talk or Net2Phone. Most software and the services are free. Plus, courtesy recent advances in codec technology, voice quality is decent even over dialup connections.

So if you want to make worthwhile conversation with your cousin in the US, here's how you go about it. Use your dial-up TCP/IP Internet account to log on to the Internet with your multimedia-enabled (microphone, speaker and sound card) PC. Then use a special Internet Telephony software to connect to your cousin who has a similar Internet Telephony software on his PC. As soon as your cousin's Web phone rings, he/she clicks an icon on-screen, which in effect, answers the call.

As you speak into the mike that is connected to the sound card, the software on your PC converts your voice (analog) into data (digital) packets, which are then transmitted across the Net. At your cousin's end, his/her software receives the data packets and then reconverts them into voice packets. Since you're using the Net to call up your cousin, your voice travels along the IP network. Consequently, it is treated as just another form of data and you're billed only for the time you were connected to the Net. This in short, is VoIP. And all over the world, Netizens like you, are capitalizing on this technology that promises to make life much more comfortable.

Under the current terms of service, your account can be frozen if your ISP catches you chatting over a VoIP-enabled circuit. VSNL is particularly harsh., They begin by frequently dropping your dial-up carrier. Finally you get an email that your service has been discontinued. The worst part is you can no longer apply for a new account in the same name as you have been barred. Most private ISPs are no more lenient. Their terms of service state that they'll lose their licenses if DoT catches them providing such a service. However, its possible to connect to VoIP unofficially. Only we didn't even tell you what you need!

BSNL's (and by extension the Government of India's) obstinacy regarding VoIP appears illogical. Long-distance telecom carriers (telcos) like MCI and AT&T once claimed that VoIP robs them of revenue. Yet ironically enough now AT&T which had earlier argued that it was a "historic right to recover infrastructure costs" in circuit-switched technology, has now recognised a need to join the IP bandwagon. After all, why shouldn't individuals and corporates take advantage of cost-saving technology?

Due to price pressure, telcos the world over are implementing packetised voice on their own backbones and researching means of offering enhanced subscriber services. In India, we've been hoping that TRAI and the government will integrate their stand and reconsider the Internet telephony policy this year. But DoT has upset all hopes of an early legalisation of Internet telephony by declaring that it will make Internet telephony legal, only after VSNL's monopoly over international long distance calls ends in April 2002.

High bandwidth is a pre-requisite for VoIP. Unfortunately, given India's current emaciated state of bandwidth, implementation of VoIP will lead to a severe clogging of telephone networks and switches. Finally, VSNL lacks any cost-sharing arrangement with worldwide telecom providers. So it's opposed to IP telephony that'll bypass whatever system of accounting is in vogue with VSNL, thereby reducing it's revenues.

It's time our government heeded universal trends and lifted the ban on VoIP, because the time is just ripe. Compared to other countries, PC penetration is still low enough in India for the government to not feel the pinch even if it allows VoIP. So here's hoping that all this ranting is within the active earshot of the Indian government. As the old adage goes, better late than never.

Amrita Ghosh with inputs from Govind Menon
[email protected]

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